Unlike most religions, Hinduism cannot be traced back to a founder, partially because the religion is believed to be around 6,000 years old. Though some believers regard it as having existed forever.

There is also no holy text or formal doctrines, but rather consisting of loosely connected beliefs. There are however, collections of scriptures known as the Veda.

Hinduism places a heavy emphasis on attaining freedom from the perceived world and on eliminating ties to the material place of existence, eventually including one's personal identity.

One of the concepts in Hinduism is the idea of Reincarnation, which is simply the repeated cycle of birth and death (also called the Samsara). Through meditation, Hindus seek to escape the cycle by achieving enlightenment (Moksha). Believers are reminded that clinging to faith in one's own separate identity is like assuming an alias, making recognition of the true Self impossible.

Karma is the Hindu principle of cause and effect under which actions in a past life may have an effect on one's present situation. Only those who escape the cycle of birth and death may be said to go beyond the reach of karma.

There are different Hindu gods praised throughout the different variations, but the main 3 are:

Brahma
(the creator of worlds, born from a Lotus)

Vishnu
(the preserver and protector of the created)

Shiva
(the destroyer of worlds)

All of these gods take many forms, depending on the interpretation of the believer (this is a hard religion to explain, because the gods are not limited to any number or appearance, instead they change to suit the need of the believer in his "path to enlightenment"). Without a doctrine, subjectivity is the name of the game here. This makes it hard to classify Hinduism as either mono or polytheistic.

-There is something eternal and inherently divine within the human heart, and that "something" is not different from that which is eternal and inherently divine and permeates all of creation. The purpose of human existence is to discover a path that will lead to direct experience of this "something"-

Brahma is the personification of the Absolute, the creator of the world, which is perpetually destined to last for 2,160,000,000 years before it falls to ruin, at which time Brahma recreates it. The passage of one such cycle represents a single day in Brahma's life.

Vishnu has many incarnations, such as Krishna and Rama, and is seen as the force of transcendent love.

Shiva is usually depicted with four arms and surrounded by fire. He is both a creative force (symbolized by a phallus) and the destructive force (phallus makes sense now, big dickhead).

Marriage, in the Hindu tradition, are usually arranged, a contract between two families.

Yoga is a meditative practice used to achieve enlightenment. There are four accepted approaches to yoga (and none of them involve sweatpants and women burning calories).

-Bhakti Yoga (the path of love and devotion)
-Karma Yoga (the path of right action)
-Rāja Yoga (the path of meditation)
-Jñāna Yoga (the path of wisdom)

Each has its own set of disciplines and meditative principles.

If you're wondering who the elephant headed figure is that is constantly associated with Hindu, that is Lord Ganesha, another of the many gods celebrated in the religion. He is referred to as The Remover of Obstacles and represents "perfect wisdom."

Unlike other animal sacrificing religions, Hinduism promotes the worship of animals and regard cows and peacocks as sacred. The reason for this is argued... some say it's because of influence from the vegetarians of Jainism, others say that back in the day it was expensive to sacrifice a cow that could be used for many other purposes, such as milk and using their dung for fuel.

Hinduism grants absolute and complete freedom of belief and worship. It conceives the whole world as a single family that deifies the one truth, and therefore it accepts all forms of beliefs and dismisses labels of distinct religions which would imply a division of identity. Hence, Hinduism is devoid of the concepts of apostasy, heresy and blasphemy.

-There are plenty of terms and names that I'm skipping, mainly because thet are impossible to pronounce for us westerners, and also because they are the same as other religions; names for celebrations and rituals and such-

"Ain't got no last words to say, yellow streak right up my spine. The gun in my mouth was real and the taste blew my mind."

"We see you cry. We turn your head. Then we slap your face. We see you try. We see you fail. Some things never change."